Investors, business owners, management and company employees rely on valid accounting methods for the stability of investments and an accurate assessment of the overall company health. All companies, regardless of size, benefit from a comprehensive audit policy plan. The complexity of the plan ties to the type of organization, size of the business, governmental requirements and the general business industry. Audit policy plans outline the requirements and standard procedures a business follows for each audit session. A strong audit policy plan minimizes confusion, ensures compliance with general auditing practices and maintains consistency between audits.

1. Review legal and governmental requirements for auditing in your business or industry. Auditing requirements may extend to information technology, human resources, production and finance.

2. Analyze the accounting system and your business processes for areas of weakness. Notate areas where fraud could occur due to lax restrictions or access to money, technology or financial information.

3. Establish the audit objectives by outlining the basic requirements for the audit. Ensure each area of weakness identified is covered by an audit objective. In total, the objectives must prove the accounting systems are functioning correctly and that fraud isn't occurring.

4. Match data to audit objectives. Establish specific data points, documents or information that may be used as evidence to prove your company is meeting each requirement. Data may include examples from the purchasing cycle, information technology audits, bank deposits, monthly close documents, human resources documentation and general accounting processes. Ensure data can be replicated and stored for use in multiple audits.

5. Define the controls used during accounting and business processes. These controls include a secondary review of financial data entry, review of technology access, check-signing requirements and cash management oversight. Businesses may benefit from assigning internal auditing personnel for additional control layers.

6. Describe auditing tests. These tests are the auditing steps used to pull the data and evidence for answering the audit objectives. Steps include observing system input processes, reviewing documents and accessing financial records.

7. Compile a comprehensive audit plan. Start the plan with a definition of each audit objective and scope. Follow with the specific data and evidence requirements used to meet each objective, along with the audit test used for each. Outline testing of auditing controls and protection measures.

8. Review the auditing policy plan with executives, finance staff and managers, internal auditing staff, the outside auditing firm and legal counsel. Ask for a comprehensive review of the plan and make changes as necessary.